Insulator for electric wires

ABSTRACT

An insulator for insulating wires, said insulator being tubular in shape with a longitudinal opening therein for receiving one or more wires, said insulator adapted to cover and insulate the wire or wires and/or the ends thereof, said insulator being deformable under pressure and having pressure sensitive adhesive material on the inside surface so that said insulator adheres to said wire or wires and to itself upon sufficient deformation.

United States Patent [191 Haub, Jr.

[111 3,742,123 [451 June 26, 1973 INSULATOR FOR ELECTRIC WIRES [76]Inventor: LeRoy E. Haub, Jr., 4401 Clarmont Court, Bridgeton, Mo. 63044[22] Filed: Nov. 25, 1970 21 Appl. No.: 92,667

[52] U.S. Cl. 174/138 F, 93/94 R, 174/87,

339/116 R [51] Int. Cl. H0lr 5/12, H011) 17/00 [58] Field of Search174/5 R, 10, 74 A,

174/84 R, 87,135,137 R, 138 F, 167; 339/116 R, 116 C, 213 R, 213 T;24/D1G. 11; 93/94 R; 150/52 R; 138/D1G. 1, 96 R; 156/184, 191, 217, 218;206/D1G. 18;

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,515,798 6/1970 Sievert174/135 722,881 3/1903 Paine 93/94 R X 1,980,121 11/1934 Wallace 339/116R 2,371,913 3/1945 Phillips et a1. 138/96 R 2,694,747 11/1954 Werkhaven174/87 FOREIGN-PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 859,646 12/1952 Germany 174/87291,201 5/1928 Great Britain 174/87 406,410 3/1934 Great Britain 174/5 RPrimary Examiner-Laramie E. Askin Attorney-Gravely, Lieder & Woodruff[57] ABSTRACT An insulator for insulating wires, said insulator beingtubular in shape with a longitudinal opening therein for receiving oneor more wires, said insulator adapted to cover and insulate the wire orwires and/or the ends thereof, said insulator being deformable underpressure and having pressure sensitive adhesive material on the insidesurface so that said insulator adheres to said wire or wires and toitself upon sufficient deformation.

5 Claims, 11 Drawing Figures INSULATOR FOR ELECTRIC WIRES This inventionrelates to an improved insulator for wires, and in particular, to aformed insulator which can be slipped over the ends of said wires andpinched together to easily and quickly insulate said wires.

Some electrical wires or the ends thereof are presently insulated byinsulating tape which is wound on a roll. Such tape is used in the homeby individuals, and is also used on assembly lines in plants orfactories. Factory workers sometimes use reels of insulating tape toinsulate the ends of wires on electrical motors and other electricalapparatus. To insulate such ends, the operator must pull the tape fromthe reel and cut it, unless it is automatically dispensed and cut fromthe roll. The operator must then wrap it by hand around the wires ofsmall diameter. Thus, there is margin for human error, because theoperator may not properly cover all of the exposed wire to be insulatedor may not wrap sufficient turns around the wire so as to provide theproper thickness of insulation for the wires. Even if the operatorproperly performs the job, much time is consumed with the resultingexpense in labor. Also in the past, there have been open and closed endheat unstable coverings for wire, but these have been made frommaterials which have a memory and which do not remain in their deformedposition unless heat has been applied. With such heat shrink devices,heat is needed to shrink the material on the wire, which requires afurnace. Further, the wire to be insulated with the covering thereonmust be oriented properly so that the cover will remain in properposition in the furnace as it is being heated. All of this adds to theexpense of insulating the wires. Some of these prior devices haveconsiderable bulk and do not tend to flatten and conform to the wirethey are supposed to insulate.

The present device is especially useful in those installations whereinan operator presently wraps tape from a roll around a portion of wire toinsulate the wire. Such insulators are used on fractional horse powermotors, such as used in power tools, washers, dryers, fans, blowers, orare used in lighting fixtures and on other electrical items. Theinsulators embodying the present invention are used in thoseinstallations wherein tape from rolls was previously used. However, aswith insulators cut from tape on rolls, these insulators may not besuitable in some installations wherein high currents or temperatures areencountered, such as in toasters, irons, and certain other electricalapparatus.

One of the principal objects of the present invention is to providepressure deformable insulators which can be slipped over the end of thewire and compressed to insulate a portion of the wire or the endsthereof with the proper thickness of insulation. Another object is toprovide a tubular insulator made from the identical insulating tape inroll form that is presently used by a manufacture so that no newinsulating specifications need be written. Another object is to providea deformable tubular insulator which can be pinched together by pressurefrom the fingers of an operator and without the necessity of a tool.Another object is to provide a deformable insulator which may beinstalled by a machine, if desired, without the necessity of a furnace.

These and other objects and advantages will become apparent hereinafter.

The invention is embodied in an insulator for wire, said insulator beingtubular with an opening therein,

said insulator adapted to cover and insulate the wire,

said insulator being made of insulating material which is deformableunder slight pressure, the inside surface of said insulator havingpressure sensitive adhesive material thereon, so that said insulatoradheres to said wire and to itself upon being deformed and placed incontact with said wire and opposing insulator surfaces.

The invention also consists in the parts and in the arrangements andcombinations of parts hereinafter described and claimed. In theaccompanying drawings which form part of this specification and whereinlike numerals and letters refer to like parts wherever they OCCUI'Z FIG.1 is an enlarged fragmentary side view of the material from which aninsulator embodying the present invention is made,

FIG. 2 is a bottom plan view of the material shown in FIG. 1, showing ablank from which said insulator may be formed, and showing in dottedlines the strip from which the blank may be cut,

FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 show the blank being rolled into tubular form,

FIG. 6 is a side view, partially tilted, of the tubular insulator formedwith two open ends,

FIG. 7 is a side view, partially tilted, of a modified form of insulatorhaving one pinched or closed end,

FIG. 8 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of an insulator with aclosed end about to receive a wire or wires in its open end,

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of an insulator of modified form, such asshown in FIG. 7, about to receive a wire or wires in its open end,

FIG. 10 is an end view of an insulator showing wires in cross-sectiontherein prior to the insulator wall being deformed, and

FIG. 11 shows said insulator after its wall has been deformed aroundsaid wires to be insulated.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, it will be seen that theembodiment of the invention which has been illustrated comprises aninsulator I made from the same material that a user has previously beenusing to insulate wires. By utilizing this same material, the user doesnot have to make additional tests or changes specifications, since he ismerely using the same material as in the past, but in different orshaped form. The insulator l is preferably formed from blanks or pieces2 of the same insulator tape material which the user previously used ina roll form. The tape is cut into pieces 2, such as shown in FIG. 2.

As shown in FIG. 1, the insulator tape material has a backing 3, whichforms the outside surface 4 of the insulator 1, and a pressure sensitiveadhesive material 5 on one surface thereof which forms the insidesurface 6 of the insulator l.

The material from which the insulator blank 2 is made may be of any typeof tape material which is presently in use to insulate wire. The backing3 of the tape may be of a paper or woven nylon, or cellophane, or cloth.It may be reinforced, if desired, and it may have an outer layer ofdissimilar material thereover. However, any material which has a memory"and which tends to resume its open tubular shape after being pinchedtogether should be avoided.

After a piece 2 has been cut from a roll of insulator tape (not shown),the piece 2 in flat position (FIG. 2) has an upper edge 7 and a loweredge 8 parallel thereto. The piece 2 has a left edge. 9 and a right edge10 which preferably are parallel to each other and are angularlypositioned with respect to the upper edge '7 and the lower edge 8. Theseside edges 9 and are preferably parallel to each other and form an angleA with the lower edge 8. The left edge 9 is formed by a cut angularlyacross the roll of tape, the cut also forming the right edge of the nextadjacent piece. The angle A results in a triangular portion at the lowerleft of the piece 2, which permits the piece 2 to be rolled more easilyfrom a flat position (FIG. 2) into a tube It (FIG. 6) having one or morethicknesses of material therein. If tape 0.0075" thick is used and thedesired insulation is 0.015, then two full turns of material are needed.Therefore, the length of the lower edge 8 must be properly measured inaccordance with the desired diameter of the tube 11.

A suitable method of wrapping is shown in FIGS. 2-6. The tube 1 1 may bewrapped in a different manner if desired, such as to form a longerinsulator from the same piece 2 shown in FIG. 2, but this might requirean extra operation, such as trimming one or both ends of the tubularinsulator so formed with the resultant waste of material.

The insulator 1 (FIG. 6) comprises a hollow tube 11 having a wall 12 ofone or more thicknesses of the material. The wall 12 has a smoothoutside surface 4 and an inside surface 6 which is covered with pressuresensitive adhesive 5. The right edge 10 forms an outer helical edge, andthe left edge 9 forms an inner helical edge. The tube 11 has an opening13 having a diameter D which is greater than the greatest cross-sectionof the wire or wires 14 to be inserted into said opening 13 in order toinsulate said wires 14. In practice, this opening 13 is preferablyseveral times the combined crosssectional area of the wire or wires tobe insulated, although in some installations it may only be slightlylarger, such as 1.5 times the diameter.

The insulator 1 may have two open ends 15 and 16 (FIG. 6). If preferred,the insulator 1 may have one open end 15 and one closed or pinched end17 (FIG. 7-9) in which the tube 11 has merely been deformed inwardlyalong a diametral line until the adhesive causes the opposite halves tostick together, thereby forming the closed end 17. The advantage of apinched or closed end 17 is that an operator may simply place the closedend insulator 1 over the ends of the wire 14 until the closed end 17 isin contact with the end edges of the wire 14. This automatically stopsthe insulator 1 from further longitudinal movement with respect to thewire ends and makes certain that the wire ends 14 are in fact coveredwith the insulator 1. With an insulator 1 having open ends 15 and 16(FIG. 6), a careless operator may slip the insulator 1 too far up thewire 14 and leave the wire end edges exposed. However, there are someinstallations wherein an insulator with two opened ends is desired.

The present insulator 1 is made from pieces of tape material which arecut off at predetermined lengths, depending upon the height of theinsulator to be made, its diameter, and the number of wall thicknessesdesired. To conserve material and avoid cutting off one or both ends ofthe tube 11 after it has been rolled into tube shape, the axis ofrolling 18 should be perpendicular to the upper edge 7 and lower edge 8,and the distance between said edges should be the desired height of theinsulator 1. When rolled in this manner, the lower edge 8 rolls uponitself and the parallel upper edge 7 rolls upon itself. The only seamsin such an insulater will be an inside helix formed by the left edge 9and an outside helix formed by the right edge 10. If a longer insulatori is desired, it is preferable to make the same from material whosewidth or distance between the upper edge 7 and lower edge 8 is the sameas the desired height of the insulator. It is not essential that theleft edge 9 be parallel to the right edge 10, but if said edges areparallel then one cut of the tape material forms the adjacent edges ofadjacent insulators to be formed. By slanting the edges 9 and 10 at anangle A, the triangular portion 19 is formed which permits the tube 11to be rolled more easily. If the left edge 9 were at right angles to thelower edge 8 so that the angle A would be the tube 11 would be moredifficult to form, since it would be more difficult to roll it into tubeform on existing types of machines. In most installations, the insulator1 has a length at least four times that of its diameter.

The invention herein is embodied in an insulator 1 of tubular shape witha longitudinal opening 13 therein. For some applications, it ispreferred to have the insulator 1 with two open ends 15 and 16. Forother applications, an insulator 1 having one closed end 17 may bepreferred. Such an insulator is shown in FIGS. 7-9, wherein theinsulator has one open end 15 and an end 17 which is pinched togetheralong a diametral line. In this form, the opening 13 graduallydiminishes in size toward the closed end.

With either form, that is, one or two open ends, the insulator 1 may bedeformed by an operator who pinches the wall 12 of the tube 11 togetheruntil the walls 12 adhere to each other and to the wires 14 to beinsulated, due to the adhesive 5 on the inside surface 6. This requiresonly slight pressure of the fingers on the hand, such as the thumb andforefinger. The insulators 1 also lend themselves to automatedapplication to the wires 14 to be insulated.

The adhesive 5 on the material may be of any suitable type, but it mustbe compatible with the wire 14 it is to insulate. For example, it iswell known that certain types of adhesives may corrode aluminum wiresand such adhesives should be avoided when the insulator l is to beapplied to aluminum wires. Typical materials which are presently used toinsulate wires have a backing 3 with adhesive 5 thereon. Such materialsare available on the market from well-known manufacturers and includePermacel brand electrical tape (P 275), 3 M brand electrical tape (No.25, No. 60, etc.), Tuck brand tape, Mystic brand tape, and others. Thesetapes may be of woven fabrics of natural materials such as cotton orsilk or fiber glass, or may be of synthetic materials such as apolyester. The base or mat material may be paper or other suitablematerial. The backing 3 may have a film thereon of polyester or othersuitable material.

This invention is intended to cover all changes and modifications of theexample of the invention herein chosen for purposes of the disclosure,which do not constitute departures from the spirit and scope of theinvention.

What is claimed is:

1. An insulator for wire to be insulated, said insulator being tubularin shape with a longitudinal opening therein, said opening being largerthan said wire and adapted to receive a portion of the wire therein,said insulator adapted to cover and insulate said portion of the wire,said insulator being made of non-elastic insulating material ofsubstantially uniform thickness when in flat form, said insulator havinga thin tubular wall wound in spiral fashion from a flat piece ofmaterial to form a wall of multiple thickness, said insulator beingdeformable under light pressure, the inside surface of said insulatorhaving pressure sensitive adhesive material thereon, so that saidinsulator adheres to said wire and to itself upon being deformed to forman insulator on the wire.

2. The insulator set forth in claim 1 wherein said insulator has atubular wall formed from a flat piece of material having two pairs ofparallel edges, one pair of edges being angularly positioned withrespect to the other pair of edges at an angle other than 90.

3. The insulator set forth in claim 2 wherein the angle between saidpairs of parallel edges is between 30 and 60.

4. The insulator set forth in claim 2 wherein the angle between saidpairs of parallel edges is about 45.

5. An insulator for the ends of wire to be insulated, said insulatorbeing tubular in shape with a longitudinal opening therein, said openingbeing larger than said wire and adapted to receive the end of the wiretherein, said insulator having a closed end adapted to cover andinsulate the end of the wire, said insulator being made of a singlepiece of non-elastic insulating material of substantially uniformthickness when in flat form, which material is wound in spiral fashionto form said insulator, said insulator being deformable upon pressure ofthe fingers of the hand or machine, the inside surface of said insulatorhaving pressure sensitive adhesive material thereon, so that saidinsulator adheres to said wire and to itself upon being deformed uponlight pressure to form an insulated end on the wire.

1. An insulator for wire to be insulated, said insulator being tubularin shape with a longitudinal opening therein, said opening being largerthan said wire and adapted to receive a portion of the wire therein,said insulator adapted to cover and insulate said portion of the wire,said insulator being made of non-elastic insulating material ofsubstantially uniform thickness when in flat form, said insulator havinga thin tubular wall wound in spiral fashion from a flat piece ofmaterial to form a wall of multiple thickness, said insulator beingdeformable under light pressure, the inside surface of said insulatorhaving pressure sensitive adhesive material thereon, so that saidinsulator adheres to said wire and to itself upon being deformed to forman insulator on the wire.
 2. The insulator set forth in claim 1 whereinsaid insulator has a tubular wall formed from a flat piece of materialhaving two pairs of parallel edges, one pair of edges being angularlypositioned with respect to the other pair of edges at an angle otherthan 90*.
 3. The insulator set forth in claim 2 Wherein the anglebetween said pairs of parallel edges is between 30* and 60*.
 4. Theinsulator set forth in claim 2 wherein the angle between said pairs ofparallel edges is about 45*.
 5. An insulator for the ends of wire to beinsulated, said insulator being tubular in shape with a longitudinalopening therein, said opening being larger than said wire and adapted toreceive the end of the wire therein, said insulator having a closed endadapted to cover and insulate the end of the wire, said insulator beingmade of a single piece of non-elastic insulating material ofsubstantially uniform thickness when in flat form, which material iswound in spiral fashion to form said insulator, said insulator beingdeformable upon pressure of the fingers of the hand or machine, theinside surface of said insulator having pressure sensitive adhesivematerial thereon, so that said insulator adheres to said wire and toitself upon being deformed upon light pressure to form an insulated endon the wire.